Tunes for the American Classroom: A Brief Overview of the Emphasis on Informal Singing in Music Education

Abstract

Community singing was a popular American pastime that had a profound impact on how Americans expressed culture in the early 1900s. As community singing increased in popularity, music educators became progressively interested in incorporating some of the tunes used in the community (informal) singing arena into school curricula across the country. During this segment of the panel presentation, I seek to provide a brief explanation of the activities of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) by detailing the organization’s outlook on the state of music education in the 1910s. In this presentation, I plan to showcase some of the tunes that were championed by the MENC through the publishing of song pamphlets and highlight the usefulness of these songs to the MENC’s initiative. My research draws on information from historic accounts of the beginnings of the MENC (now the National Association for Music Educators), a selection of writings by former MENC President Peter Dykema, analyses of the impact community singing has had on music instruction in schools, and records for the tunes that will be highlighted in the discussion.